Today we face a climate of ever increasing misdirection by popular media. This site, along with others, aims to reveal the reality of America and the loss of fact inherent to the over riding theme of our current political and social confusion: Purposeful deception.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Police Brutality, Black America, and the US Occupy Movement

The US “Occupy
Movement” continues to raise Americans consciousness regarding a number of
critical social issues and inequities, including the vast wealth disparity
within the so-called “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave”. The
US
version of the movement began on Wall Street and has now spread throughout
numerous cities and towns, gaining momentum with each new participant. Many
Americans, young and older, are beginning to shed some of their apathetic
clothing, in hopes of tailoring a new garment riddled with threads of social
and economic justice. People are indeed seeking a new, more progressive society
within a nation (America)
drenched in injustice, and inequality. And as these movements begin to foment
so does the state sponsored apparatus of repression—the police. Many seasoned
and fledgling activists are beginning to get their first unhealthy taste of
police brutality and abuse of power. Even privileged college students, such as
those at Berkley,
are encountering some of the inhumane treatment that is sometimes doled out
from the hands of rogue police officers.

Experiencing
police brutality and terror is horrifying for anyone, especially those
unaccustomed to it. Much of “mainstream” America has expressed distress,
disgust, and displeasure with the unsettling images of activists, many of which
are white, being sprayed with pepper spray, beat with batons, and bloodied.
However, this treatment of human-beings, as barbaric as it is, is merely a
sampling of what is done in black and brown communities, day in and day
out—year by year!

In order to
create a better, more egalitarian and justice oriented society, solidarity will
be crucial; however the disproportionate suffering that various demographics
endure must be recognized. Without this recognition we can expect to see a
continuation, in some form, of race-based social injustices such as
institutional racism. The police terror that many black and brown communities
experience, on a daily basis, is directly associated to institutional racism. America, unofficially,
continues to function much like an apartheid state. Disproportionate
unemployment, poverty, living standards, and wealth distribution, are even more
pronounced when comparing black communities to white ones. And when it comes to
policing, black and brown communities are under constant surveillance,
harassment, and brutality. Unarmed black people are routinely brutalized, and
killed, by racist and corrupt “law” enforcement. As bad as these various rogue
police officers are, it is the institution of law enforcement in America that
protects their actions, thus serving as the lifeblood to keep it going—-in
perpetuity. These issues are not isolated, nor are they novel—they happen all
the time in communities of color, throughout the United States.

Black and
brown communities have been fighting police brutality, in one way or another,
for generations, however much of “mainstream” America (white America), have
either ignored this human rights issue or not taken it as seriously as they
would if this was effecting white communities in the same manner. For instance,
if Aiyana Stanley-Jones was a seven year old white girl
who had been shot and killed by a police officer, while sleeping in her
family’s living room, there would be national outrage broadcasted throughout America’s
corporate media airwaves. This would be mainstream news for weeks, if not
months and years. However, this tragedy and crime remains unknown to the vast
majority of Americans. The brutal truth remains, much of white America
(especially the media outlets it controls) could not give a damn about the
impact of police brutality on communities of color, even when its victims are
seven year old black girls.

These
issues must be mentioned at every “Occupy” demonstration, as much as humanly
possible. This author knows from attending a few different “Occupy”
demonstrations that some people are working hard to make this issue prominent,
however others are not. The issue of police brutality within communities of
color must be raised, addressed, and combated. It is one of numerous human
rights issues that plague black and brown communities. Police brutality, among
other issues (e.g., mass incarceration, unemployment, gentrification, etc),
must be completely eradicated. Until they are addressed on a mass scale, by
those outside communities of color, the “Occupy Movement” is nowhere close to
achieving its full social potential.

When those
who claim to represent “the 99%” reject as “divisive” the grievances of the
Black, red and brown minority, they are claiming a false mandate. “Until more
so-called white liberals, progressives and activists take Black issues
seriously enough to give them more than lip service; many black people will
continue to see themselves as marginalized, even within the broader Occupy
Movement.” There can be no just society in “an apartheid state.” Since its
illegitimate founding, America
is, and has always been, a white settler state.

The
perception of marginalization from the “Occupy Movement” that some black
activists have is a very real one and should be validated before anyone
emotionally rebuffs it as if those black activists are just “making unnecessary
waves that divide”. I have heard this from time to time and from time to time I
have vehemently rejected that knee-jerk reaction from some “activists” who do
not understand the social dynamics of the black community. First and foremost
it should be understood that America
is an institutionally racist country built on a despicable legacy of brutality
towards people of color. This history and its present day legacy, has yet to be
reconciled by much of white America
and its mainstream institutions (schools, media, government). People of color
have no choice but to deal with America’s
structural racism and white supremacist overtones, each and every day. These
injustices follow us, no matter where we go. Ignoring it will never make it go
away.

Recognizing
and comprehending that institutional racism is a social disease is a
significant first step toward combating its deleterious impact on people of
color. America
has never recognized this irrefutable fact. As a matter of fact, America has black president that, like his
predecessor, has refused to send a US delegation to the United
Nations’ World Conference against Racism. This should make it rather clear as
to the level of commitment the US
has towards ending institutional racism. America’s continuous denial of
their homegrown brand of institutional racism is a telltale indication that it
is a nation in desperate need of serious social rehabilitation.

Understanding
that America
is infected with this social disease is a critical second step. This is an
honest diagnose which can lead towards practical treatments (solutions).
However, without this recognition on some mass public scale, social
convalescence becomes even more of an uphill battle. Those who claim to be
social justice oriented activists must be willing to place institutional racism
and white supremacy within their collection of “causes” to unwaveringly battle.
Those white liberals who are turned off by language like “white
supremacy” and “institutional racism” are a major part of the overall
problem. They are the disingenuous frauds that prescribe to myths like,
“American Exceptionalism”. Disillusionment and suppression of the root causes
of rampant and disproportionate police brutality, in communities of color, only
add to the unabated social malady. This is a sickness that black activists have
routinely struggled and fought against, as well as persistently tried to
publicize on a broad level. Despite these important ongoing efforts, the
so-called white liberal media routinely marginalizes the voices of most of
these black activists.

This author
has had the opportunity to visit, participate, and report on what I saw at some
occupations. When interviewing black activists, who had been there much longer
than I, most shared an understandable level of frustration regarding their
voices being marginalized, especially by the so-called liberal media. Some of
those interviews can be heard by clicking here. The liberal white media wanted nothing to do
with them, and therefore nothing to do with the social issues they were trying
to shed a bright light upon. This marginalization is not rare in America and it
is not solely practiced by the white media. This is a practice of
marginalization that is riddled throughout mainstream America, which
is why harmful social injustices continue to run rampant in black and brown
communities. This is, in essence, why this author refers to America as an
apartheid state—one based on “separateness”. And that separateness is broken
down upon racial isolation and the disproportionate allocation of everything
from human rights to resources. Those who are of color are typically the people
who catch the most hell by way of this unwritten American policy of separate
and unequal. Instead of having pepper spray showered on them, people of color
subsisting in governmentally neglected communities routinely have police
officers’ bullets sprayed upon them. If the majority of people in the “Occupy
Movement” were black the backlash from the police would be devastatingly
violent, and most likely deadly.

If
solidarity is the mantra of the US “Occupy Movement” then more and more
demonstrations need to incorporate serious dialogue and organization as how to
combat institutional racism and white supremacy. People of color inAmerica do
not have the “political power” to accompany prejudice, which is why it is
currently impossible for people of color to practice institutional racism
towards Euro-Americans, even if they wanted to. Racism is prejudice plus
political power. More and more white people who define themselves as social
justice advocates and/or progressives must be willing to go into predominately
white communities and challenge the longstanding “power” structures,
deep-seated racial/cultural hate, as well as ignorance that are connected to
the larger overarching problems of institutional racism and white supremacy.
These white activists must also be willing to demand an end to white people’s
monopoly of political, social and economic power, especially since that
monopoly has illegal roots of theft of Native American land and the enslavement
of African people. People of color need to have the ability to determine their
own destinies, without interference. Many people of color are fighting for
these things. And some white people are fighting for these human rights—however
many more are needed. American institutional racism is a white problem
that has destroyed countless lives of color, thus making it a social epidemic.

The Occupy
Movement in the US
is an important step towards a more socially and economically just world. As a
social justice activist I am wholeheartedly in favor of that kind of
world. I am also in solidarity with those who are fighting on behalf of
those radical paradigm shifts. However, until things like police brutality and
police terror are universal issues within the “mainstream”, we have a long way
to go. And until white supremacy and institutional racism are fought against by
a critical mass of Euro-Americans, the US will continue on as the
apartheid state it is. Until these things are radically changed, police
brutality will linger on like an untreated festering sore. When seven year old
black girls are indiscriminately murdered by police, it is a blatant indication
of a society with a deadly disease. That disease is called institutional racism
and it disease kills people of color on a regular basis. It is time for the
“Occupation Movement” to metastasize (in a good way), eviscerate
institutional racism, and destroy the apartheid-like policies throughout the US. This cannot
happen without more activists of color, and their communities’ issues,
universally, being brought into all arenas. It is time to occupy the
consciousness of America.

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